Filk is the folk music of sci-fi and fantasy fandom.

May 30, 2018 8:37 AM

Filk is the folk music of the science fiction/fantasy community, but also the act of singing filk. It got its name from a typo in an essay in a 1950s fan publication. It has a lot of definitions. It’s often funny, but not always. It often uses melodies from other songs, but not always. Filker Lee Gold wrote a comprehensive history. Wikipedia and TVTropes have lots of info. The Pegasus Awards are for the finest filking.

A few famous filkers filking: Leslie Fish & Vic Tyler doing Duane Elms’s “Dawson’s Christian” (or Elms’s version if you prefer); Julia Ecklar & co doing Leslie Fish’s “Hope Eyrie” from the first commercial filk album, Folk Songs for Folk Who Ain’t Even Been Yet (1976); Cynthia McQuillin doing “Gilda and the Dragon”; Tom Smith and Rob Balder doing “Rich Fantasy Lives.”

posted by goatdog (30 comments total)

For some reason this makes me think so much of the fiction of Charles de Lint. His urban fantasy lends itself well to this kind of music and art inspiration. There's a lot to dig into here. Good share. I didn't know this was such a big thing. I love it.
posted by Fizz at 8:41 AM on May 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

Mad Magazine has been doing filk for decades.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 8:47 AM on May 30, 2018 [2 favorites]

I'd always been ambivalent about filk but one day late last year I found myself writing the entire history of modern SFF out with appropriate meter and rhyme to the tune of American Pie and now I just think well sometimes you gotta filk because sometimes the urge strikes and will not be denied.
posted by kyrademon at 9:09 AM on May 30, 2018 [7 favorites]

> the entire history of modern SFF

A 1,000 volume set!
posted by cjorgensen at 9:19 AM on May 30, 2018

Nostalgia. My first wife was a filker who played, wait for it, the autoharp.
posted by Splunge at 9:27 AM on May 30, 2018 [5 favorites]

I'd always been ambivalent about filk but...

Not me ! To paraphrase Jack Vance, the concept is noncupatory.
posted by y2karl at 9:29 AM on May 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

As a long term science fiction reader I was not into convention but finally noticed that one of the boston events had a free day when I was at loose ends and some of the authors I'd enjoyed were speaking, mostly in panels. But there was this "filking" event which seemed important, a couple from canada if I recall, well it was well attended with enthusiasm but, well, I also "appreciate" folk music. Certainly the early impromptu efforts with clever lyrics must have been a gas but must admit to less than whelmed.
posted by sammyo at 9:35 AM on May 30, 2018

There's a whole lot of links that are going to remain unclicked here.
posted by haileris23 at 11:00 AM on May 30, 2018 [3 favorites]

Yay filk! A friend of mine introduced me to Tom Smith, Leslie Fish, and Heather Alexander in college and I never looked back.
posted by UltraMorgnus at 11:01 AM on May 30, 2018 [2 favorites]

There are a handful of "fan culture" phenomena that I just can't quite wrap my head around, and this is chief among them. The few folks I know who are into filk are, like, deeply, deeply invested in it, but to me it's always felt like novelty music, and I can only engage with that sporadically and extremely selectively and still get any sort of pleasure from it. I blame Tom Bombadil.
posted by Fish Sauce at 11:01 AM on May 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

He is a merry fellow.
posted by kyrademon at 11:11 AM on May 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

It's gone way beyond one guy, one guitar, and one obsession with Kirk/Spock love. There's Wrock (wizard rock), Trock (Time Lord rock), and other varieties of Geek Rock (though Twirock seems to have shuffled off this mortal coil).
posted by rikschell at 11:13 AM on May 30, 2018

Yeah, that's right, he performed accoustic guitar songs about Star Trek. That sort of behavior hurts me real bad inside."
posted by namewithoutwords at 11:18 AM on May 30, 2018 [3 favorites]

to me it's always felt like novelty music, and I can only engage with that sporadically and extremely selectively and still get any sort of pleasure from it.

For me, at least, it matters whether I care about the book/show/movie whatever that's being used. Most filk I can take or leave; the filk and other songs that people have been writing in Lang Belta for The Expanse I love.
posted by Lexica at 12:07 PM on May 30, 2018

And we're banned from Argo, everyone!
Banned from Argo, just for having a little fun!
We spent a jolly shore leave there for just three days or more,
But Argo doesn't want us anymore.
posted by Melismata at 12:13 PM on May 30, 2018 [7 favorites]

I am so glad that I am not the only one who thought of "Banned from Argo," and I'm not even of that generation of fan who would have heard it contemporaneously!

There have been some lovely music videos of filk songs for genre media. The one that immediately comes to mind is "Supernatural Parody" by The Hillywood Show, notable for its great production values and the inclusion of actual cast members dancing and miming lyrics at the end. (Spoilers for most, if not all of Season 10 of Supernatural.) I love it, can understand it, and have never even seen anything of Supernatural beyond an episode or two. It's not a bad way of catching up on pop culture.

My hubs and I filk almost all the time, but we've never been tempted to write anything down or perform it. Our style lends itself more towards political filk (a la Mark Russell, OMG I feel so dirty). I also went to my first bardic "filk" circle at CONvergence two years ago and it's a must-do activity for me at cons from now on, if they have them.
posted by TrishaLynn at 12:46 PM on May 30, 2018 [2 favorites]

I remember a long drunken argument at an Adelphi Eastercon whether Frank Hayes' S-100 Bus (and others of its, er, ilk) were filk or actual folk. I actually had a tape for a while with quite a lot of that sort of thing, but I blame that on bad company, which I only hung around with because of the liberal amounts of drink and filthy sex. Oh, and the drugs. And the SF. Some of the SF, at any rate.

When the pain of the filk grew greater than the pleasures, I sorta stopped going to cons. It's more complicated than that, of course, but not that much more.
posted by Devonian at 12:47 PM on May 30, 2018 [3 favorites]

99% of science fiction is crap, and 99% of folk music is crap, with the result that there are only about five good filk songs, and no one can remember what the fourth and fifth ones are. Also, no filker sings really well. You just have to accept that.

I like "Wings" a lot. It is as wildly overwrought and romantic as early Anne McCaffrey, but I like early Ann McCaffrey too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yb81hG0m9zI

"The Word of God" is not so much antireligious as rationally religious: "Humans wrote the Bible; God wrote the rocks." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-vDhYTlCNw

If only Leslie Fish could sing a little better, "Ship of Stone" would be the best of these songs. Things that used to be human wax nostalgic for an Earth they have never seen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_nzKSueJM4

There are a couple of other good ones, but I can't remember them.

Mary-Em, the old battle-ax with an old battle-ax in Niven's _Dream Park_ is a filker. There's that.
posted by ckridge at 1:19 PM on May 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

Wow, that Wikipedia article goes into excruciating detail about how a group of people might decide to sit in a circle and play music together.
posted by rh at 1:24 PM on May 30, 2018 [2 favorites]

And Carmen Miranda's ghost is still haunting Space Station 3.
posted by Faint of Butt at 1:52 PM on May 30, 2018 [2 favorites]

Never got into filk, but I have friends who are still deeply into it.

Before there were (self-identified) nerds and geeks, there were fans.

You can tell a fan by the filking.
posted by edheil at 4:21 PM on May 30, 2018

I never found time to do much of it during cons, but I love filk, mainly because I love so many filkers. And because they just get in there and DO it, rather than waiting for someone else to do everything for them. They are one of my favorite fannish subgroups.
posted by elizilla at 6:07 PM on May 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

In the fall of 2002, I was a freshman at an ill-chosen, relatively obscure Pacific Northwest private university. I'd gotten a good scholarship, and didn't end up fitting in very well, though that might have just been my deeply introverted nature. My roommate was a prick, and rather than reaching out more often to the few friends I'd made (not wanting to seem clingy, and also unconsciously playing the same dumb game I still struggle consciously with, a line of thought that goes, well, I don't want to seem clingy or be a bother, if they really wanted to hang out with me they'd make an effort to), I got real deep into the fandom forums of the webcomic Megatokyo. Tons of just general story discussion, and also involved in forum roleplays, several different ones set in various fan versions of the titular city. I think it's the only time I've ever been popular in any real way.

Inspired by some other posters, beginning with one in December 2002, I wrote 43 filks in the parody (or... rewriting, I guess, I feel like parody has a humorous connotation and many were not intended to be humorous, though some were) vein, primarily about the comic, but also a few about the Megatokyo fandom, and maybe other stuff, I just counted the dang things, didn't read them. Yet. I feel like a lot of them were pretty good. They were well received on the forums.

I did "Creeque Alley," by the Mamas and the Papas. I remember being proudest of that one, there's a lot to it. I did American Pie too; if you're doing that sort of thing, you have to eventually. I did a lot of Simon and Garfunkle, a fair amount of Counting Crows, a fair amount of They Might Be Giants (who someone on the forums introduced me to), a couple Warren Zevon songs (ditto), some others. I was a weird kid.

It was only ever the writing. I have no musical talent, despite a lot of practice on various things. I never was really in an environment to perform one. I think I would have been too embarrassed to, even among fellow fans. I enjoyed writing them, though. I recently rewrote a song to be a song written by a character in a story I'm writing. That was fun. It won't come for a long time in the plot, but I'm excited to get to it.

I met the first girl I ever loved on those forums. It was beyond complicated, and she broke my heart the autumn of 2003. It was never going to end in anything but tears, I was in so over my head. Such is life, though. I faded from the forums after that; I associated them too much with the girl, and had become a little codependent with some friends at school in search of solace. I continued on with a LiveJournal that interacted with a number of the forumites, I think, but I eventually faded with that, too. I've never been good at keeping friends.
posted by Caduceus at 7:19 PM on May 30, 2018 [2 favorites]

Also, no filker sings really well. You just have to accept that.

You are 99% correct, except I would argue that Julia Ecklar is the exception to the rule.

Cases in point: "Terminus Est" (the video is cheese, here is a Spotify link in case you don't want to cringe), "The Phoenix", "Crimson and Crystal" (a CMQ cover set to some random video, again, here's a Spotify link if you want to just listen), and "Shades of Shadow" (from the Elfquest album done ages ago by Off Centaur), a song that filk lore says was written specifically to test Julia's pipes.

There's also Meg Davis, when she could still sing, who was really marvelous and a consummate musician. But Meg was only ever filk-adjacent. She was a folk singer who just happened to do filk when they paid her to.

Still, "Elf Glade" is one of my favorite songs ever, and "Captain Jack and the Mermaid" was how she worked through her grief when her brother went off to the Vietnam War and didn't return. Her repertoire is great -- she's influenced by traditional music, but also Leonard Cohen, to give you some idea of her roots -- and I love her to pieces.

Also, Heather Alexander was really excellent and a fantastic live performer the couple times I caught her performing at Baycon.

He is now Alexander James Adams, and while I haven't followed the latter half of his career, the photos I see seem to show a happy and productive man.
posted by offalark at 11:13 PM on May 30, 2018 [2 favorites]

Literally no one asked for this, but the thread seems to have slowed down enough after a day that this isn't too obnoxious, so:

A long, long time ago –
I can still recall the scene
Where Frankenstein created Life.
But then he left it to its fate,
A grave mistake, he learned too late;
And he refused to build his child a wife.

The narrative turned grim and gory
With each new chapter of the story –
Tragic and cathartic,
They fled into the arctic.

I can't remember if I shook
When he vanished with no backwards look,
But something touched me, and it took,
The day I read the book.

It’s sci-fi, asking how, asking why,
Innovation, exploration, FTL and AI,
We’ll live forever, or we’ll horribly die,
Saying that we'll do it reading sci-fi,
That we’ll do it reading sci-fi.


Then Verne said, hey, let’s look around,
Beneath the sea, below the ground,
Even into outer space.
We’ll cross the earth with flag unfurled,
We’ll take it all around the world,
And so we’ll gain the time to win the race!

But Wells said, you’re an optimist,
There’s dangers we don’t know exist.
To them we’d be like fleas.
Our only hope would be disease!

But here is why we keep Wells on our shelves:
Our human flaws are truly where he delves –
Go far enough, we’ll meet ourselves
The day we read the book.

We’ll be reading sci-fi, looking up to the sky,
See it clearer – it’s a mirror showing you your own I.
We’ll live forever, or we’ll horribly die,
Saying that we'll do it reading sci-fi,
That we’ll do it reading sci-fi.


Then across the pond, they turned the page
And ushered in a new golden age
With writing from the great Big Three.
The foundation for all that came next,
They filled the pulps up with the text
Of robots, rebels, r for rocketry.

But while the kings were looking up
A new wave came and took the cup
And when the old guard scoffed
They turned the hard more soft

And as the strange land got more strange
The voices heard got rearranged
Le Guin and Russ were when it changed
The day they wrote the book.

They were writing sci-fi, see how high they can fly,
Watch them suture up our future with a neat little tie.
We’ll live forever, or we’ll horribly die,
Saying that we'll do it reading sci-fi,
That we’ll do it reading sci-fi.


Quite long ago, and very far
A battle fought among the stars
Made the trickle the main stream.
In rainy, dreary east LA
The androids all came out to play
And we began to dream electric dreams.

Now we watched the shows and bought the toys
And the movies made a lot of noise,
But while the wars trekked by,
We were still reading on the sly.

The writing style grew grim and dark,
They neuromanced us in the park,
But we learned to pronounce Hellspark
The day we read the book.

We were reading sci-fi, truth disguised as a lie.
There’s no topic too dystopic or entropic to try.
We’ll live forever, or we’ll horribly die,
Saying that we'll do it reading sci-fi,
That we’ll do it reading sci-fi.


Soon everyone got up to dance;
From those who’d never had the chance
New parables were being sown.
Like a slow river to the sea
They wore away the boundary
And said, your chilly math has been outgrown.

When everybody wrote YA
We volunteered on tribute day.
They said, you don’t belong here,
But we said, we’re the throng here.

The series stretched out long and far,
Mere trilogies soon seemed subpar,
And we’ll return to Barrayar
The day she writes the book.

We’ll be reading sci-fi, where the rules don’t apply.
Psychic powers, sentient flowers, all baked into a pi.
We’ll live forever, or we’ll horribly die,
Saying that we'll do it reading sci-fi,
That we’ll do it reading sci-fi.


I met a ship who sang the blues
And I asked her for some happy news;
She smiled in an ancillary way.
Time is an engine, slow and vast.
2001 somehow slipped past,
And the weather’s getting warmer day by day.

Two hundred years since sci-fi’s birth
And we’re still here on planet Earth.
But this will be our byword –
We’ll all keep looking swyward.

And the writers I admire most,
The Mother, Child, and Holy Ghost,
They’ll walk the last man to the coast
The day we read the book.

We’ll be reading sci-fi, and we’ll laugh ‘til we cry,
Since the universe is loony, curse the void and reply.
We’ll live forever, or we’ll horribly die,
Saying that we'll do it reading sci-fi,
That we’ll do it reading sci-fi.

It’s sci-fi, asking how, asking why,
Innovation, exploration, FTL and AI,
We’ll live forever, or we’ll horribly die,
Saying that we'll do it reading sci-fi,
That we’ll do it reading sci-fi.
posted by kyrademon at 9:34 AM on May 31, 2018 [5 favorites]

I had never heard about this (filksinging, I mean) till I read, what I consider, one of the best reading experiences of my life; BIMBOS OF THE DEATH SUN, by Sharyn McCrumb. I have always wanted to go to a SF convention ever since, but only if there was Filksinging involved. Especially by the fans, not professionals.

That book has given me more information about SF Fandom than any article I have ever read.
posted by indianbadger1 at 1:06 PM on May 31, 2018 [3 favorites]

Heh, be careful what you ask for. :D

Filksinging can be great. When the room is good, it's good. I've had some good rooms, I've had some bad rooms. Usually because someone is moderating and getting people to play fair. Kathy Mar was good at wrangling people. So was Leslie Fish. But I haven't been in a filk room in nearly two decades, and I'm sure the world has moved on.

TBH the whole reason I stopped doing cons was largely a #MeToo moment instigated by a Big Name Filker in a Dragon*Con elevator who thought it was okay to cop a feel on a 19-year-old me. The cognitive dissonance I feel when I see people praising him up and down for his ally-ness must be how women who knew about Joss Whedon must have felt. And I have no desire to fight that fight, and time has been unkind to him, so I, too, have moved on.

Anyway, ever since geekdom has hit mainstream and plays like Hamilton have become big I wonder if filk hasn't lost its shine. We are so much more accepting of weirdness now than we used to be. The girl who wandered around high school listening to rock songs by Cats Laughing and Phoenyx about black unicorns and lusty fauns and vampires would probably be more readily accepted today.
posted by offalark at 2:09 PM on May 31, 2018 [4 favorites]

My band just debuted our full set of 14 original songs, one inspired by each episode of Firefly, at WhedonCon last week. I've been on the fence about calling the collection "filk" since they aren't parodies or really even folk, but after reading this thread, I'm starting to suspect the term might fit after all. Guess I'm a filker now!
posted by platinum at 1:16 AM on June 2, 2018 [1 favorite]

Here's a PDF copy of The Scaréd Harp containing some good old filk songs.
posted by willF at 5:42 PM on June 2, 2018

Hey all.

So my partner, Mara has told me quite a few times about her uncle the filker. This time when I was visiting her family she showed me an old songbook "Stave the Wails" that he was published in along with Bill Roper and Julia Ecklar. I'm trying to track down all the song sin the book so she can hear them. The most important one would be "Ramblin' Railway Filker - Curtis Katz" but that probably was never recorded. But I thought I'd put the list hear to see if anyone recognizes anything and has a copy or knows of where I could acquire one.

(I've found recordings of songs with a * at the end)
The Wind from Rainbow's End - Bill Roper*
Beyond Pandor'a Door - Ernest Clark
Rablin' Railway Filker - Curtis Katz
Marcon Ballroom - AnnePassovoy
Song at the Ready - Suzette Haden Elgin
Three Harps - Colin Fine
All of the Filkers are Singing - Mark Berstein
Oh, What a Horrible Filksong - Valerie Housden
Dopple Entendre - Bob Kanefsky / Kathy Mar
Mary Sue Fan Fiction Blues - Mary Kean Holmes
Flying Island Farewell - Barry Childs-Helton
Ship of Stone - Don Simpson*
Star Sisters - Jean Stevenson*
Mommy, Can I have a Spaceship - Joey Shoji
Fire in the Sky - Jordin Kare*
Soul of the Steel - BJ Willinger
Tyrannosaur's Lullaby - Jane Robinson
Houd of the Baskervilles - Jane Mailander / Brenda Sutton
Bloodchild - Joey Shoji*
Black Draogn - Beth Stevens & Janet Wilson
Grey Rider - Micheal Whitaker
lesson - Larry Warner
Hymn to Amber - Roberta Rogow
Publish & Be Damned - Phil Allcock /Chris Bell
Good Morning, Mister Johnson - Mark BersteinParasite's Anthem - Dave Luckett
Ain't It Tragic - Naomi Pardue
Temperature of Revenge - Tom Smith / Julia Ecklar*
What Does a Dorsai Do? - Chris Weber*
Star to Steer By - Karen Willson
The Last of Grand Moff Tarkin's Crew - Nick Smith
Imperial March - Jim Vibber
Do It Yourself - Bill SuttonLittle Teeny Eyes - Tom Digby w/ Lee Gold*
Vampire Megabyte - Steve Savitzky*
Drink Up the River - Kathy Mar
Kites & Windmills - Jane Freitag
Song of the Women - Janet Warner / Zander Nyrond
God Lives on Terra - Julia Ecklar*
Draw Down the Moon - Brenda Sutton
Cosmic Drain - Sally Childs-Helton
I Saw My World Go Down - Bill Sutton
Starbound, Soilbound - Barb Riedel & Carol Roper
Stoaway - Deirdre M. Murphy
Outer Space Rocket Trilogy - Clif Flynt
Suns - Paul Mac Donald
Time and Stars - Sharon Porath
Red Star, Rising - Mitchell Burnside Clapp
Wishful Thinking - Peter Thiesen
Lullaby for a Weary Wolrd - TJ Burnside Clapp*

I've made a playlist of the songs I've found so far.
posted by Canageek at 12:42 PM on June 6, 2018 [1 favorite]